30 March Heading North

Temp 10 C at 6 PM. Price of Diesel fuel 4.21/ gal.
We left the camp site 9:30 and by checking the route we would have a 5 hour lesiure trip to Sedona ( actually Cottonwood near Sedona)assume there was nothing along the way that would bite my ass. First we had to do a brake check on the trailer as we had purchased a new brake actuator and it can only be adjusted with the trailer connected and the brakes have been applied to warm them. So we choice a street with very limited traffic so we could adjust the brakes. The new brake system has a digital indicator and it was not reading with the proper power application and I could not seem to correct it, so we called the 1-800 help line. While talking to the Techy and doing some checks the actuator corrected itself so I told the Techy i would continue and adjust my brakes and if I had any further problem back. The brakes worked great so we preceeded.
Our next hurdle was going thru Tucson as the traffic seemed to be always heavy even with 5 lanes. I always try for the 3 rd or middle lane so i don't get caught in the Exit Only lane. The Americans are no different than Canadians when it comes to merging... Well, we got thru Tucson and were motoring along at 105 KPH ( 65 MPH ) musing about stopping in Casa Grande for lunch when all of a sudden there was a loud explosion. Now, I'm no rocket Scientist but I do know the sound of a tire exploding so i immediately pulled over to the shoulder. Luckily, if you consider a blown tire luck, we just passed an on ramp from an exit so there was lots of room to pull over and a very wide shoulder. Normally, a blown tire causes untold damage to the undercarriage but we probably hit a bolt or a small piece of metal that puncture the tire letting the air escape without the tire flying apart. The only damage was the fender skirt which can be replaced for 150.00. One week ago another RV blew a tire and it caused 1500.00 damage so we felt a little fortunate. Since I did not feel like changing a tire and that we were only 20 miles from Casa Grande, we called our Good Sam Roadside Assistance . The tow Truck arrived in about 1/2 an hour. I now required a new tire so I ask the Tow Truck driver and he advise me to go to Discount Tire in Casa Grande so I did. While the tireman and i were checking the tires for size and type we noticed that another tire had some small cracks. I ask the tireman for the price to replace the "blown tire " so after punching about 100 keys on his computer he said 164.00 bottom line. Since I figured that this tire would cost at least 225.00 in Med Hat, I ask if he better the price if I took 2 tires. So again he punch the computer another 100 times and said the best i can do is 264.00 for two. I was a little shocked so I said is this the bottom line; no extra for taxes, environment, valve stem or balancing. he said ;bottom line and I'll have you on the road in an hour and 15 mins. I said .. itis a deal, get at it. After leaving the tire shop we stopped at the Cracker Barrel for a late lunch.
Back on the road again, we headed for Phoenix, 1/2 an hour away, as the only way to Sedona is thru Phoenix. The population of Phoenix is somewhere between 3 and 4 million and most of them were on I-10 ahead of me so we were bumper to bumper until we reached I-17 north. After about 1/2 an hour we were ready for a "Pit Stop" so we took an Off ramp with the thought that we would get the ON ramp at the top of the overpass. Well, this has to be the only off ramp in the USA that does not have an On ramp. There was one other road but it had a sign that said " City of Phoenix Landfill " but we did not have a choice so we followed it for about a mile. This road lead to another road that said " private road , authorized users only". i stopped an looked at Carroll and said Now what. She said I'm authorizing to use it. So we turned on the GPS to see if we could find our way and after several lefts and rights, winding our way thru a subdivsion we finally reached I-17. Now we are really running late so Carroll called the Camp site to advise them and they gave us our site number and the directions . Now we were clear sailing and hoped to be at our camp site by 5:30 and be set up so we could make supper and have a beer.
However, we still had some Bad Luck that we had not used yet!!!! As we were climbing a mountain ( 4400 ft ) the engine temp guage started to climb very quickly so i immediately racked my brain for a possible cause and i could only think of a blown head gasket. However once I reached the top the guage quickly returned to normal, so then I'm thinking and hoping it could be a faulty guage. This happened again at the next mountain but returned to normal once we reached the top. I determined it was not that serious so we carried on.
We finally arrived at the camp site and we were surprised to find that it is an overpriced gravel pit with power, water and sewer, but acceptable under the circumstances. There is also 2 other Albertans in the park. So we setup the camper including the satellite because there hockey to watch, and I decided to deal with the Truck problems tommorrow.